City council again proclaims Green Shirt Day

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on March 26, 2025.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Mayor Blaine Hyggen on Tuesday presents his official business motion calling for April 7 to be declared Green Shirt Day in Lethbridge.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Lethbridge city council on Tuesday unanimously declared April 7 Green Shirt Day in Lethbridge.

Council supported an official business motion made by Mayor Blaine Hyggen to make the declaration in honour of Logan Boulet, who died from injuries sustained in the crash of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team’s bus with a semi-trailer unit on April 6, 2018.

City council every year since 2019 has made the April 7 declaration but a council has to approve an exception to a resolution made on Jan. 11, 1999 that the mayor would discontinue the practice of issuing proclamations ” to avoid endorsements for a cause or program that would result in controversy in the community.”

Hyggen told council in support of his motion that it’s estimated more than 150,000 people registered to become organ donors in the days and weeks after after word spread that six lives were saved by Boulet’s donations of his organs, a number which is believed to be the single largest number of Canadians registering due to one event and one person.

One objective of Green Shirt Day 2025 is to inspire 100,000 more Canadians to register as organ donors, said Hyggen. The day, he added, was created to honour, remember and recognize all victims and families of the fatal crash and continue Boulet’s legacy by inspiring Canadians to talk to their families and register as organ donors.

Toby and Bernadine Boulet, Logan’s parents were in council chambers for the motion along with family friend Lori Yokoyama, a nurse who drove to the city from Brooks for the declaration.

Toby Boulet said this year was the family’s first in council chambers for the declaration and they felt it was important to support mayor and council for the initiative.

“It’s time to step up…we’re normally in the background,” said Toby.

The OBM was one of two on Tuesday’s agenda, the other from councillor Belinda Crowson who asked that $3,000 be approved from council contingencies to be spent on scarves and ties in the Lethbridge tartan. The motion also called upon City administration to work with the Lethbridge Handicraft Guild in co-ordinating a bulk order for the scarves and ties.

The motion states that 2025 is the 25th anniversary of the Lethbridge tartan and the guild is putting in a bulk order this year which requires that four or five dozen of each item must be ordered – more than the guild requires.

The tartan was officially registered with the Scottish Tartan Society in June of 2000 and in that year the City and handicraft guild also worked together to secure a bulk order of scarves and ties.

That motion was also approved unanimously.

During recognitions before the agenda was approved, council heard a presentation from the guild about its history and posed with members and the tartan.

Lynn Patterson, the president of the Lethbridge Handicraft Guild, which is also known as Lethbridge Weavers said the guild was first formed in 1935 as a branch of the Canadian Guild of Weavers. It stopped meeting when many women entered the workforce during the Second World War, Paterson said.

In 1949, the group started meeting again and offering classes, that year which is considered to be when the present guild was established. It first offered numerous and eclectic classes, but in the early 1959s the focus shifted to weaving more exclusively.

The guild first met in the Red Cross rooms after the war and stayed there until 1964 when it moved to the Bowman Arts Centre where it was one of the first resident groups there. When the Allied Arts Council was created in 1958, the guild was also one of the founding members, council heard.

The guild moved to Casa in 2013. It currently has more than 40 members.

The journey to creating the City tartan started in 1998 when a motion was passed by city council that the guild design an official one and that it should include the nine colours of the City crest. Those colours included, green, gold, light blue, yellow, steel blue, pink, red, black, and white, council heard.

Between 1998 and December 1999, 16 different tartans were proposed by guild members and samples woven. The final design was chosen by consensus within the guild membership and in January, 2000 an application to officially register the tartan with the Scottish Tartan Society was submitted. In June of 2000, city council officially approved the design, council heard.